The End of Google Search. The internet giant is “changing the formula” of its products and media folks are beginning to assume that there will be no search traffic in the future…and fretting about their survival.
Advertise here with Carbon Ads
This site is made possible by member support. 💞
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Beloved by 86.47% of the web.
Comments 22
thread
latest
popular
This is the thing I think about when I feel like I lived through the peak of civilization: that we could look up anything we needed or wanted to on Google, and then they replaced that with this lying robot butler.
What are kottke-ites using for search engines these days?
noai.duckduckgo.com
Kagi, mostly, which seems to be built on top of pre-decline Google tech and DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo! Big fan these days.
I switched to DuckDuckGo and few weeks ago and it’s mostly fine but Google is still better for some queries.
FWIW DuckDuckGo also has AI summaries. I hate them and tell them every time they come up to "never" show them. Apparently when you click that it means "never show the AI summary again when I do this exact search". Sigh.
Kagi. I switched because Google has gradually transformed into a store. If you search for anything that can be purchased or sold the first couple pages of links will all go to retail outlets. If I want to learn how torque wrenches work or learn to make a clay pot, I'll first have to wade thru 50 links to HomeDepot, Amazon, and Etsy.
I'm so habituated to typing my query directly into the URL bar, but neither Safari, Brave, or Chrome lets you set noai.duckduckgo.com as the default search engine (just primary duckduckgo). Grr.
This DDG Chrome extension will change your default search engine to DDG no-AI.
Stupid me just realizing that Noai DDG is different and exists. And also there's a Firefox extension to set it as the default. Done!
DuckDuckGo, although Google is still better for various geographical searches, e.g. directions, or finding restaurants near a location.
Jason, why are you still using Chrome? Get yourself to Firefox or the DDG browser
+1 for Kagi. I have had it for a couple of years and can't imagine going back.
What is even worse is that the scrapers are now so serious that websites without huge resources are falling apart (as documented in a recent post here), as well as their advertising income evaporating. Quite soon there will be no search engines, but that will be OK because there will be nothing left to search for.
Duck Duck go for years, it’s totally fine other than now having to manually choose the non-AI version
So, I turned off the AI option on Duck Duck Go but immediately realized how addicted I was to "just getting the answer" instead of being expected to search a bunch of (mostly useless) results and then read through them in hopes of finding what I need.
The thing about AI is that is is not perfect for higher level, existential, and life-changing issues. But it is good at telling you how to get wood glue out of fabric or how to find the locking pin on an old mitre saw.
I only need three lines of text on issues like those. I don't need to compare multiple websites' takes on stuff like that. "Searching and reading" is a luxury/waste of time when you just need to get back to work.
It is so, so, so often wrong about those exact types of queries that no, I don’t agree it’s better than or even comparable to actual information from a real website. I ask it basic questions about things and around 60% of the time (Gemini) is dead wrong about the third or fourth line of its response, while the rest of the response is true. It’s bad, man. If it was accurate, that would be different, but it’s just not.
My experience is in between these two responses. There is a ton of useful information buried 3 clicks deep in a discussion board from 2010 that the AI surfaces quickly. At the same time, it's shocking to see the Google logo and an AI summary that is clearly bullshit. I'll go for a week or longer where I have a run of accuracy and then get an obvious reminder that at least one click into an old webpage is necessary if I want the right combination of household cleaners to get that grout clean. My hit rate is much better than 40% but retaining the skills at old fashion research will be useful for a while longer.
I’ve exclusively used DuckDuckGo for a few years now. It’s good enough, although I still get the occasional (unwelcome) reminder that it leans on the Bing index.
I’ve heard good things about Kagi and would love to try it, but for the way Apple limits the default search engine options in Safari. The convenience of having web search accessible through the address bar just speaks too well to my laziness.
You can use the Kagi for Safari extension to do this. After setup it just works.
Is it just me, or has online shopping (I still use Google) gotten really weird lately? Lots of results from Temu, etc. plus Walmart, Amazon, and Target working as middle-men for the same Temu-like brands (I'm seeing one called "Unique Bargains" on multiple sites, for example). And, for better or worse, Google seems to be directing me to a only few specific options, which makes me think that a lot of companies who aren't AI-savvy are getting left behind.
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
In order to comment or fave, you need to be a kottke.org member. Check out your membership options.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions. Or try logging out and then back in. Still having trouble? Email me!